Jacobs tells Golovkin: It’s time to put up or shut up

By Boxing News - 01/06/2017 - Comments

Image: Jacobs tells Golovkin: It’s time to put up or shut up

By Chris Williams: Middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin finally will be facing someone dangerous with the talent level to beat him in Daniel Jacobs when these two guys fight each other in two months from now on March 18. In the minds of boxing fans, it’ll be the #1 160lb fighter Golovkin facing the #2 fighter in Daniel Jacobs.

Some would disagree with those two being the top, but it’s hard to make a case for Saul Canelo Alvarez or Billy Joe Saunders as being among the two top guys in the weight class for various reasons.

Canelo vacated to avoid Golovkin in 2016. Jacobs barely beat fringe contender Artur Akavov last December in a close 12 round decision.

Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) and Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) will be fighting on HBO PPV on March 18. The start time for the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight is at 9:00 p.m. ET. The location of the fight is at Madison Square Garden in New York. The tickets are expected to be sold out. Who, when, where and why is obvious to most hardcore boxing with the Golovkin-Jacobs fight. It’s a great match-up.

“It’s finally here. Now it’s time to put up or shut up,” said Jacobs about the Golovkin fight via espn.com. “We both are devastating punchers. We both have amazing skill. So there’s numerous ways to look at this fight. How I see it going is a bit different. He’s a very dangerous fighter. He’s a very strong fighter.”

Jacobs is like a bigger, stronger, faster version of welterweight Kell Brook. Golovkin had all he could handle from the 5’9” Brook last September. Brook couldn’t continue in the 5th round because of an eye injury. How the fight would have transpired if Brook didn’t suffer that debilitating injury, we don’t know. We can’t know.

All boxing experts can do is guess how the fight would have gone. I think Brook would have given Triple G the fight of his life if not for the injury. It’s too bad Brook and Golovkin can’t have a do over to see who the better fighter is without an injury, but I think there’s little chance that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn will ever put him back in with Golovkin again. The injury that Brook suffered could have happened against anyone.

Golovkin didn’t injure Brook from anything particularly powerful that he threw at him. It was an angle thing where Brook was hit when he was leaning forward. That increased the power on Golovkin’s punch. The 6’0” Jacobs is taller than Brook and Golovkin, and with a longer reach. Jacobs can do everything that Brook did, but with more devastating consequences.

The uppercut that Brook hit Golovkin with in the 2nd round, it might be a knockout shot with Jacobs throwing the punch. Golovkin was definitely hurt by that shot from Brook, because he was reeling the entire round from the heavy blows he was getting hit with. Jacobs will have a very good chance of finishing Golovkin off if he jumps on him early in a similar fashion.

“[This is] the biggest fight that could be made in the middleweight division,” said Jacobs. “I mean, what more could you ask for? It’s going to be an entertaining fight — for however long it lasts.”

This is Golovkin’s moment of truth. Some would say where the bully finally meats an opponent with more than equal punching power and talent that is willing and ready to stand up to him. On March 18th, we’re going to see what happens with GGG when he gets hit back by someone who isn’t going to back down when the going gets tough inside the ring. What happens with the 34-year-old Golovkin when he starts getting nailed in return by the young lion Jacobs?

I have a feeling that Jacobs is going to declaw Golovkin in front of the U.S boxing fans on March 18. Golovkin will be dangerous as he always is in the early going, but when Jacobs starts hitting him back with shots with more than equal power, I think he’s going to earn GGG’s respect. Once that happens, Golovkin is going to be cautious, and will think twice before throwing his own power shots in the fight. That’s where Jacobs will have Golovkin where he wants him, because he’ll be able to take charge of the fight to get a possible stoppage at some point.

After a disappointing loss earlier in his career to Dmitri Pirog in 2010, Jacobs has hit his prime recently with wins over Sergio Mora, Jarrod Fletcher, Peter Quillin and Caleb Truax. Jacobs is nothing like the fighter that lost to Pirog seven years ago. That fighter no longer exists. Jacobs is a new man now, and he’s come into his own. You can’t say the same thing about Golovkin. He looks like he’s heading downhill. Golovkin was at his best several years ago when he was beating guys like Curtis Stevens, Matthew Macklin and Daniel Geale.

Golovkin was in the zenith of his boxing career in 2013. In 2016, we started to see cracks in the façade of Golovkin with the way he was hit a lot in his fights against Dominic Wade and Kell Brook. Golovkin still won both fights, but he looked nothing like the fighter that had wiped out Macklin, Geale and Stevens. I think Golovkin is now 70% of what he was back in 2013. His power is still there, but he’s lost hand speed, and his reflexes don’t look to me to be what they were back then.

Additionally, Golovkin’s stamina doesn’t look as good now as it was back then. If you saw how Golovkin was gasping for breath in his last fight against Brook, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Golovkin looked really tired in that fight. I think that’s age rearing its ugly head with GGG. He’s getting old, and is now ripe for the taking by Jacobs. This isn’t something that Golovkin can fix by training harder for the Jacobs fight. Age is a one-way trip. There is no fountain of youth that Golovkin can drink from to get young enough to smash a fighter like Jacobs or even beat someone like Canelo. I think Golovkin is going to lose to both of those fighters.

“Sometimes you have to make fights rough,” Jacobs said. “Sometimes you have to go in there and overcome what seems to be impossible to some. But if you believe in yourself and you believe in your ability, which I do, I think all will go well.”

Jacobs might need to rough Golovkin up from time to time in the early going to keep him honest. If Jacobs hits Golovkin low or with an elbow or a rabbit punch, it would be attention getter. We see that kind of stuff all the time in boxing and it works. When a fighter roughs up another one, they gain an edge oftentimes.

If Jacobs has to rough Golovkin up to gain an edge, then it’s all part of the game. It goes with the territory I’m afraid. If Golovkin can’t take the heat, then he needs to get out of the kitchen on March 18. Jacobs will be taking out all the stops in this fight. If it means having to rough the shorter 5’10 ½” Golovkin up, then so be it.